


Burn Down And Start Over.

by Everyoneisheretoday5



Category: Butterfly Soup (Visual Novel)
Genre: Angst, Animal Death, Crying, F/F, Fire, Hurt/Comfort, Noelle is that one friend you can always count on, Slight injuries, author was not prepared to write this, dissolves into noekarsha at the end a bit, she/they pronouns for Min-Seo, starts off with Diya’s pov
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-24
Updated: 2020-11-24
Packaged: 2021-03-09 23:35:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,089
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27694232
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Everyoneisheretoday5/pseuds/Everyoneisheretoday5
Summary: If it weren't for barking constantly invading her consciousness, Diya might have never woken up.——A story based off of the beginning of Pom Gets Wifi.
Relationships: Akarsha/Noelle (Butterfly Soup), Diya/Min-seo (Butterfly Soup)
Comments: 1
Kudos: 37





	Burn Down And Start Over.

**Author's Note:**

> Tw for fire, animal death, crying, and sight injuries

If it weren't for barking constantly invading her consciousness, Diya might have never woken up. She's a heavy sleeper- but she knows when her dogs are in trouble.

And as soon as sleep disappeared from her mind, her senses were invaded with the thick, heavy smell of smoke.

Diya awoke with a start, throwing her covers off in her a panic as her chest clogged up with smog. There was fire coming through her bedroom door.

_Where's Min?!_

Min was out of town. Thank god.

_Wait. MIN!_

Diya grabbed her phone for her nightstand and stood, covering her nose with her big nightshirt and running out of the room, clumsily clicking on Min's contact.

A million thoughts went through her head at once as she ran into the living room and saw the door to the outside engulfed in flames.

_Where's Shibe?!_

_POM!_

_Heck, can I get them before it's too late?_

Panic rose in her chest as she whirled around, her situation hitting her as flames licked at feet, the ground and air becoming almost unbearably hot.

_There's no time!_

_The door is on fire the door is on fire the door is on fire-_

Seeing no other choice, Diya ran to the closest window and unlocked it, slamming it open and pushing herself through.

Her bare arms scraped painfully on the sides, but she managed to manuever herself out of the apartment and tumble onto the grass just as Min's number picked up.

"Diya? Hey, what's going on? Are you alright?"

Diya coughed for a second, trying to catch her breath and expell the tightness in her chest before quietly speaking up, taking comfort in the cold wet grass and pressing the phone to her ear.

"I'm... okay..." she says, exhaling in relief.

"What happened?! You sound out of breath-" Min's voice was growing increasingly more panicked. Diya startled and sat up as sounds of crashing and dog yipes came from inside the burning apartment. "Diya??!"

_THE DOGS-_

Diya stood up, only to panic as she realized there was no way to get back inside the house.

"Diya! Please-"

"The house is on fire," Diya said shakily, the phone quivering in her unsteady hands. "The house is on fire. The dogs are inside."

"You're outside right?! Don't go back inside Diya, it's not safe, please-"

"I won't," Diya whispered to assure her partner over the phone. "...it's so scary though..."

Diya felt a lump rise in her throat. God... Pom and Shibe... she...

She turned away from the house, hands shaking.

"Diya, I'm going to call 911," said Min, as calmly as she could. They knew Diya would be too anxious to talk to the operator quickly. "I'm going to hang up for a short while. Then I'll call you back, and I'm coming back to the house as quickly as I can okay? Don't go back in, whatever the fuck you do. Stay safe. நான் உன்னைக் காதலிக்கிறேன்.I promise I'll be there."

"Okay. 나도사랑해. Thank you.."

"It's no problem."

And then Min hung up, leaving Diya to sit down in the grass farther away from the apartment and try to calm down the bad thoughts that wouldn't stop coming.

The house collapsed behind her, and Diya buried her head in her arms and cried.

——

Sirens came from somewhere in the distance. Diya couldn't tell which direction. Everything was too noisey and blurry.

She couldn't move. She was frozen to the spot, helpless to the fear of the fire that raged on the pile of wood and glass and stone behind her, it's light reflecting on the blades on grass she twirled around her fingers.

It was cold. Diya was shivering.

Her phone began to ring again as the sirens got increasingly louder.

——

A familiar car pulled up to the house as firefighters milled around and the engines on the large vechicles ran, the bright lights and sounds attacking Diya's senses. She hardly acknowledged it. She was too anxious. She didn't know what to do, with all these unfamiliar people and her house collapsed in a pile of burning rubble. She'd run away, but she couldn't.

She had to stay here. Helpless.

"DIYA!"

A car door slammed and then there was _Min_ , tiny but still steady and fast as she ran to Diya and wrapped her arms around her frozen body.

Diya was so relieved.

"Hey, are you hurt in any way? Did the smoke destroy your lungs?" Min carefully checked over Diya for injuries, tilting her head carefully and cringing when they saw the sides of Diya's arms. "Geez, these are really scraped up-"

"Climbed out the window," Diya replied quietly, gently reaching out and running her fingers through Min's hair. Soft, like usual. "Didn't have time to-"

A heavy lump formed in her throat as she remembered. The dogs. By all logic, they were dead. She didn't have time to save them.

"I know," Min said softly, casting a forlorn look at the rubble that was being hosed down. She bit her lip as tears began to shine in her eyes and Diya pulled her closer.

Diya held onto her partner (not too tight, she knew her own strength) as Min shakily cried into her shoulder. Diya could feel her own tears welling up (again) so she just buried her face in Min's hair and tried to focus.

They were here. It was okay. She and Diya were alive.

_It's okay._

_It's okay._

_It's okay._

"I'm... I'm just glad you're alright," Min mumbled, thier voice cracking. "I was so worried- I-"

"I'm here," she said, shakily like almost everything else she had done that night. "I'm here."

"F-fuck, you're crying too-"

A gruff voice came from somewhere relatively close. Min almost instinctively tore herself away from Diya to go fend off an attacker, but Diya held her steady, and nervously turned her head to look at the firefighter who had spoken.

"Excuse me? You two are the owners of this residence right?... sorry to interrupt whatever moment you're having here."

"Yeah we are," Diya replied, trying to keep down the familiar anxiety in her chest. "Is there anything we need to know?"

"Well I don't know if you've noticed..."

———

Noelle awoke to her phone buzzing angrily on her bedside table, all while playing a familiar cheery tune.

She had organized her contacts by ringtone, she knew who it was. And while she would do anything for Diya, she couldn't say she wasn't a little annoyed as she reached across her bed for her device.

She saw the time in the left hand corner and groaned. _4 in the morning? Seriously? I'm used to this with Akarsha but Diya-_

She answered the call and pressed the phone to her ear.

"Hello? Diya?"

Her best friend's nervous voice came pouring through the speaker. "Uhm... sorry for calling you this early, but Min and I need your help."

"With what?"

"Our apartment burned down."

Noelle instantly sat up.

"Your apartment _WHAT_."

Diya made a small noise of affirmation as Noelle got out of bed, only to stand in one place, put Diya on speaker, and start reviewing how insurance worked with google.

"Are you okay??? Do you need any medical attention?"

"No. Min was out of town, and the only injuries I have are scrapped arms from climbing out of our window to escape the fire. That's it."

"Still, the smoke might have affected your respiratory system-"

Noelle was pacing around her room now, bumping into her carefully placed belongings and threatening to knock them over. Her apartment was usually meticulously clean-

 _WAIT_ -

"Diya, do you need a place to stay?"

A nervous chuckle came from the phone.

"Well that's actually what I was going to ask you about, since I don't know exactly what we're going to do without an apartment and I might need help sorting out hotels-"

Noelle made a quick mental assessment of her apartment and rapidly decided. If Diya and Min had no place to stay, then they would stay here. After all, she had seen Akarsha's place and it was absolutely disgusting.

"You can stay at my apartment. The couch is big enough for the both of you, and I made sure to buy a fold-out one for optimal usefulness," Noelle declared, stepping into her dark living room.

An assortment of anxious noises came from Diya's end of the phone.

"Are- are you sure about that? We don't have the money right now to rent another apartment, you don't have to-"

"It's okay Diya, I insist," Noelle replied, turning on the lights and pulling the cushions from the couch with one hand. "As long as you and Min aren't too much trouble (I'm sure you're fine, it's only Min who I'm worried about given her habits but we can deal with that later) I'm very happy to have the both of you here. Wait- are you bringing your dogs?"

Only static and white noise was heard from the other end of the line for a couple seconds.

Noelle waited patiently for Diya to reply, before realizing the morose meaning of her silence. Her heart dropped to her stomach. If she was being honest... she really had liked those dogs. Even if they were loud and annoying. And they meant a lot to Diya and Min...

"I see.... I'm sorry for your loss. Is there anything I can do to support you?"

"...if we could get the materials to make graves for them, that would be okay."

Noelle could do that.

"That can most certainly be arranged whenever you like. And I'm preparing the couch for you and Min right now."

Noelle headed to her closet and pulled out a few blankets and sheets she hadn't been using. They were housewarming gifts, but she, being the minimalist she was, had used very few of them. The rest of them could be left for chaotic and ridiculously sappy couple that had been dating since freshman year.

"Okay. Is it okay if we just drive over?..."

"Yes."

Neither one of the parties realized that Diya and Min had practically no belongings now, but that was an issue to be sorted out for another time.

\-----

Bonus

One thing that Akarsha did not expect to wake up to that morning was a series of texts from Noelle, detailing how _Diya and Min's apartment had burned down._

 **Bisexual Programmer** : okay okay okay WAIT wtf how the hell did that happen

 **Bisexual Programmer** : you can't just expect me to wake up to this!! How the- are they okay?

 **Noelle** : They're fine. They're currently staying at my place. Only injuries are a few scrapes and possible lung damage for Diya, and the emotional pain that both are going through right now that I don't know how to deal with. They lost Pom and Shibe.

 **Bisexual Programmer** : lost??? As in they escaped- OH

 **Bisexual Programmer** : holy shit that's so sad

 **Bisexual Programmer** : fuck I'm going to miss those dogs

 **Bisexual Programmer** : Diya isn't coughing or anything right?? And what about Min? They doing okay?

 **Noelle** : They're both doing well considering the circumstances. Thankfully Diya hasn't shown any severe signs of lung damage (besides the occasional cough, but it doesn't sound that bad. I'll get her to the doctor anyways.) and Min has just been clingy. They're cuddling on the fold-out couch in my living room now doing nothing.

 **Bisexual Programmer** : well that's good- wait why didn't they consider staying at my apartment, we could have so much fun

 **Noelle** : Your apartment is a mess and you're always disheveled.

 **Bisexual Programmer** : am NOT how dare u treat your girlfriend this way

 **Noelle** : And you live halfway across the country unfortunately. If I'm being honest, I'd love to move in with you despite your lack of neatness, but colleges demand otherwise.

 **Bisexual Programmer** : oh. Yeah that's right whoops. And awwwww

 **Noelle** : .....

 **Bisexual Programmer** : you're thinking of saying something sweet in response but your doing that thing where you can't be sappy aren't you?

 **Noelle** : ...Yes.

 **Noelle** : I apologize for my inability to express cheesy romantic sentiments. Anyways, I'm afraid I'll have to stop the conversation here. I'm going to the store with Diya and Min to get supplies.

 **Bisexual Programmer** : diyamin

 **Noelle** : For the last time, I am not calling them that. They are two separate people. It makes no sense. I'll talk to you later Akarsha. Don't text and drive.

 **Bisexual Programmer** : AODHSKDHAKDHSK

 **Bisexual Programmer:** Hasta luego... remember to say hi **t** o those dorks for me. They deserve my presence.

END

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!


End file.
